Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/246

 CHAPTER VIII THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE AND THE END OF GREEK POWER Section 31. The Second Peloponnesian War AND THE Fall of Athens Jealousy of The outward splendor of Athens, her commercial prosperity, of Athens her not very conciliatory attitude toward her rivals, the visible growth of her power, and the example she offered of the seem- ing success of triumphant democracy — all these things were causes of jealousy to a backward and conservative military State like Sparta (Fig. 87). This feeling of unfriendliness toward Athens was not confined to Sparta but was quite general throughout Greece. The merchants of Corinth (Fig. 76) found Athenian competition a continuous vexation, and Corinth did all in her power to aggravate the situation by stirring up the sluggish Spartans to action. When Athenian possessions in the north ^gean revolted and received support from Corinth and Sparta, the fact that hardly half of the thirty years' term of peace (p. 184) had expired did not prevent the outbreak of war. It seemed as if all European Greece not included in the Athenian Empire had united against Athens, for Sparta con- War (431 B.C.) |-i-Qiig(] ii^Q entire Peloponnesus except Argos, and north of Attica Boeotia led by Thebes, as well as its neighbors on the west, were hostile to Athens. The support of Athens consisted of the ^gean cities which made up her empire and a few out- lying allies of little power. She began the war with a large war treasury and a fleet of warships which made her undisputed mistress of the sea. But she could not hope to cope with the land forces of the enemy, which, some thirty thousand strong, 196 Opening of Second Pelo- ponnesian